One person critically wounded in shooting at crowded Tennessee mall

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (Reuters) – One person was critically wounded in a shooting at a crowded Tennessee mall late on Thursday afternoon, and four people were arrested, the shopping center and local media said.

WMC-TV reported that four men were arguing inside the mall and one of them shot a fifth man, who was in critical condition in hospital. Police searched the mall as frightened employees and customers hid inside stores. The four suspects were later arrested near the mall.

“There was shooting and everybody started running,” WMC-TV quoted a shopper as saying.

The Memphis Police Department did not immediately return requests for comment.

“There was a security incident and one victim was already taken to the hospital,” the Oak Court Mall in Memphis said in a statement on its website.

Memphis is about 220 miles southwest of Nashville.

(Reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Tennessee and Mary Wisniewski in Chicago; Editing by Eric M. Johnson and Kevin Liffey)